Statement by the Press Secretary/Director-General for Press and Public Relations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the reports by UNMOVIC and IAEA to the United Nations Security Council on the inspections in Iraq

January 28, 2003

The Government of Japan has followed with great interest the reports by Dr. Hans Blix, Executive Chairman of UNMOVIC, and Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General of IAEA to the United Nations Security Council meeting, on the 27th (New York time), that they have not been able to obtain sufficient cooperation necessary for addressing the unresolved disarmament issues.
According to these reports, while Iraq has cooperated rather well so far in regard to the procedures, the declaration submitted by Iraq fails to clarify the unresolved disarmament issues, and does not contain any new evidence that would eliminate the questions or reduce their number. Inspections have led to the discovery of documents relating to the laser enrichment of uranium and other material, and the inspectors are experiencing difficulty in conducting interviews with Iraqi scientists. Iraq has also refused to guarantee the safety of UNMOVIC's U-2 surveillance plane unless a number of conditions are fulfilled. It is our view that these reports have clearly displayed the shared recognition that cooperation by Iraq has been insufficient, and that it is necessary to further convince Iraq to cooperate more proactively.
Japan strongly calls on Iraq, not only not to obstruct the inspections to be continued, but to proactively address the unresolved issues, and to comply with all the relevant Security Council resolutions including its obligation to dispose its weapons of mass destruction, in order for the situation to be resolved peacefully.

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